SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers are about to take part in the first-ever postseason series between teams with at least 105 wins, and all three Giants players who sat down in the press conference room on Thursday afternoon said they expect this to be an incredible and memorable series. But one Giants leader isn't sure it should be taking place the second week of October.
Evan Longoria said he thinks this series might -- or at least should -- cause Major League Baseball to reevaluate how the playoffs are structured, saying "106 and 107 wins doesn't feel like a (division series) matchup."
"I just feel like when there's two teams that win this many games, it seems early to match up," Longoria said.
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The 213 combined wins are a Major League record for any matchup, regular season or playoffs, and as the Giants and Dodgers hurtled towards this point, there was little doubt they were the two best teams in the NL.
The other two division champions, the Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves, won 95 and 88 games, respectively. They're facing off on the other side of the bracket, and the Dodgers needed a walk-off against a 90-win Cardinals team just to get to San Francisco.
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Longoria said he's not quite sure what the solution is, but he thinks there's maybe a way to sort teams based on wins, not where they placed in their division. He also said he's hoping MLB expands the postseason, which could help solve this problem.
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"I think it engages more fan bases," Longoria said. "Obviously we had those discussions with the league before and that's something that I think is potentially always on the table."
MLB had an expanded postseason in 2020 and is expected to push to bring it back at some point. For now, though, this is the system, and that means a matchup of heavyweights in the NLDS. Ultimately, the Giants felt they were getting this matchup at some point.
"We knew that we were going to have to go through them and they were going to have to go through us to get to the World Series," Longoria said.